


Shadow of the Bat // Batman Original Story

by abstract_empathy



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-06
Updated: 2019-03-09
Packaged: 2019-10-23 12:37:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17683598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abstract_empathy/pseuds/abstract_empathy
Summary: "I'm not doing this for the publicity." She spoke softly, and she knew he would ask why, so she continued. "This is my city, too. And I don't see a sign saying that people wearing bat costumes are the only heroes allowed to clean up the place.""I'm just as entitled to protecting my home as the Batman is. I just hope he can see that, too."- - -Zoe Winchester-Jones is a fourteen year-old girl who has been through far more in her rather eventful and lonely lifetime than she had originally asked for.Between living with the drunken and angered man of whom she calls her adoptive "father", to her never-ending mystery and fascination with Gotham City's protector - the Batman - her life takes an even more unexpected turn with the relevance of a hidden society who played a large role in the downfall of Zoe's life.They call themselves the Court of Owls.And it is up to her to uncover her own family's secrets, with or without the help of the Batman.... Or else she'd die trying.





	1. Rooftop

**Author's Note:**

> This was a little project that I actually started in 2017, but I never got to a constant update schedule - or even a real plot other than an interesting prologue and hook - until late 2018.
> 
> The Shadow of the Bat an ongoing project of mine, featuring a cognitive, creative, but also very timid girl named Zoe, who, despite being little more than another citizen of Gotham City at first, proves herself to be even closer to this city's dark roots than she could have ever initially imagined.
> 
> Pay attention to the small details. Nothing in this story will go unsolved.
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading, and please stick it through with me until the very end.
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Ciel ☆

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A prologue - Just to get the book started and the character introduced.

She sat atop a building, just around one-hundred and fifty feet above the sidewalk, as she watched people pass by looking as if they had their own nightly errands to run. Some were wealthy, and some weren’t. A few looked a bit suspicious, and others were young and innocent and impressionable. For a city that got attacked every other Tuesday it seemed, by some psychopathic terrorist or another, its people really had no sense of how dangerous it truly was at night.

That time when the moon’s light would barely shine through the thick canopy of dark clouds that served as a constant overhang over Gotham City, and a time when the underworld would truly come alive. Nightclubs, gangs, and even criminal organizations roamed the streets freely here. After a while, she had learned a few things about the night life - whether it be by word of mouth or simply by an unspoken rule of thumb.

The alleyways were owned by a guy who had gone under the name of the Penguin, and although she hadn’t met the man herself, she could tell from the rough-and-tumble type of burly and large guys that he hired that he meant business. While the Penguin’s goons owned the dark alleyways, Killer Croc was the one who had territory over the world underneath it. The sewers were a system that ranged throughout the span of the entire city of Gotham, only stopping at it’s many outlets into the ocean. With that type of system in his control, he could go literally anywhere he wanted. That’s why nobody with a will to see tomorrow dared step foot into his territory.

She had only come face-to-face with the Croc once, and that was just shy of a year ago. She had been wandering the East End of Somerset, and had plans to hitch a ride atop a truck that would be crossing the bridge into Old Gotham soon, when the large and scaly man burst through a brick wall with two burlap sacks in his arms. At the time, she had been horribly inexperienced in dealing with terrors like that, as she had only been thirteen and still lived a fairly normal life with her parents and her brother and sister. Of course, just as she was about to be pounded for being in the criminal’s way, the Bat had swooped in and brought him down in the span of just around seven minutes.

She owed the Batman her life that day.

At first, she had considered repaying him, but she doubted a vigilante who fought crime for justice would accept some cash she would have taken from her father’s stash underneath the floorboards. And then again, she had no way of contacting him, and she wasn’t about to wait for another crime boss to beat her to the cement just so that she could maybe catch him in time before he beat up the criminal and disappeared again into the night.

So, she figured that if she couldn’t repay the guy directly, she might as well try to make his job a little easier. Someone had to take care of the alleyway skirmishes that the Bat had missed.

And those thoughts had lead her here, on a stakeout of nobody in particular, as she kept an eye on those who were stupid enough to try and take an alleyway as a shortcut between the buildings. This was her seventeenth night on the job without any luck, and soon, four o’clock would roll around and she’d have to make it back home before the sun rose in the sky. Running on three hours of sleep wouldn’t be good for the chemistry exam she had due at her high school the next Tuesday morning, but it would have to do.

Just as she was about to rise to her feet and go off somewhere else by rooftop, where she would hopefully have something more to work with, a woman dressed in a pink gown that had shown off both her curves and her right leg turned down the space between a diner and a modest real estate building. She followed the woman, standing on a rooftop just above her, and lowered herself to the concrete edge as she saw a man with a black bandana over his mouth approach from the other side of the alley. Both of his hands were in his pockets, and he was hunched over, which had never meant good news for either parties.

When the man suddenly slammed the defenseless woman who had probably come from a nightclub against the wall and pulled out a pocketknife, the brown-skinned girl who had been watching pulled the hood of her leather jacket over her head of short black curls, and she made her silent drop down into the alleyway via a metal mesh platform halfway down.

“Hand over your bag! Now, or I’ll cut your head off!” The man held the tip of the pocketknife at the poor woman’s neck, while the woman just nodded furiously and shakily dropped her purse on the ground. Before it could go any further, the girl that had been watching went behind the man to roughly pull him back by the collar of his jacket and slam him to the ground. Before he could react properly, she planted the heel of her boot into his hand. The man grunted in pain, dropping the knife. When she kicked it away, the man rose and immediately swung at her. Thankfully, she jumped back in time before getting hit.

Her punches weren’t strong enough to take down this guy, and there was nothing around to give her a good kick, but it’d at least be possible if she could outsmart the man. He seemed to be lacking a few points in his reaction time, after all. So, with that in mind, the girl dodged a second punch before sweeping his legs out from under him, causing him to fall to the ground once more. And this time, with a hard kick to his face, she made sure he’d stay there for a while.

The woman had been standing there, petrified, for the full extent of the battle that had lasted only around a minute or two. The girl, much shorter than her, just approached the woman and handed back her purse. Inevitably, the woman just brushed a blonde lock of wavy hair behind her ear before taking the purse. And then she asked, shakily, “Who are you?”

That question was one that the young girl, just a few months younger than fifteen, had asked herself many times before. Even now, she couldn’t come up with a good enough answer for her own personal queries of this nature. Yes, she knew her name, and she knew her family and her background, but the question remained; who was she? A kid that was just trying to make a difference? A vigilante fighting for justice? Or was she just another Batman copycat? She just shrugged outwardly, giving the woman a slightly forced smile before stepping back and pulling her hood over her head.

“I…prefer to remain anonymous.” She spoke, just before running off and leaving the woman and unconscious man alone in the alleyway. The woman took no time in running away from the scene, and as the girl had climbed up to one of the rooftops, that fashionably-dressed woman was nowhere in sight. Probably disappeared in the crowd. She had figured, before beginning her own trek back home. Along rooftops, where not many noticed her, she would make her way back to the Old Gotham area to reach her crappy apartment of old red brick on the fifth floor. She, just like many others, had a home to return to. She had a family, even if it was one that she couldn’t bring herself to care about, and she had a roof over her head.

Upon reaching the building, she now stared at the window she had left open in her bedroom from a shorter rooftop just next to it. From the window, there was a rope hanging down, that she had left for when she came back every night. Her bedroom was one of the only sanctuaries she had, away from her father and away from the world. A place where she could hide away in and relax, and so it was natural that she had grown quite attached to it in theory.

It hadn’t been much of a “leap of faith” when she jumped the gap between the two buildings only to grab the rope in time for her to climb up and pull herself in through the window. She had done this many times before, and it had gradually lost it’s effect on her, despite the exhaustion that was weighing at her limbs. As if it was routine to do so, she pulled the rope inside and untied it from the windowsill, shutting the window and closing the blinds before she could methodically throw her leather jacket to the side and slip off her shoes. As she collapsed on top of her bed, hitting the black comforter and crawling underneath it, she let herself think for a while while she lay in the darkness.

That woman’s question still resonated within her. Who was she? Although she hadn’t even given her a name, she felt that her name given to her at birth still seemed slightly foreign. As if it was the embodiment of her family’s expectations - of what they wanted her to become. And now, her family was little more than a drunken and defeated man of whom she called her father. Ironic. She spat internally, before turning over on her side to face the wall. Her family was gone now. All of it, scattered into the wind, all because of her father’s fatal mistake of messing with the wrong crime boss on the past.

All because of Sal Maroni.

And with these thoughts plaguing her mind, the girl slipped into a light sleep, just as the sky was beginning to lighten with the oncoming of early dawn upon Gotham - the city of despair and darkness. Soon, she found that she would have to surrender herself to it, or else fight against it willingly, if she was ever to see that black Bat again in her dull lifetime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first time really posting anything on a03 - I actually just got my account activated today - so forgive me if the pre-written chapters are short! They just look so much longer on Google Docs...
> 
> But! I will try my best from now on to make this story enjoyable for all of you, so I hope that you enjoyed this little introduction before we really get into it! Thank you for reading my story~
> 
> \- Ciel


	2. Daylight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Zoe Winchester-Jones as she is by daylight.

The alarm at her bedside rang only hours later, and apparently, Gotham City couldn’t even bother to give her a solid four hours of rest before she had to get herself ready for the day again. Slowly, Zoe Winchester woke up fully and began on her morning routine. Straighten her hair, put on her faux eyeglasses, brush her teeth, eat a few bites for breakfast, and put on her uniform for her school - Gotham Academy - before the bus showed up just outside and she would have to leave while her father was lazily asleep on the old couch that had become his exclusively over time. The television was still on, displaying some news channel. She took a quick glance at the headline.

_Breaking News: The Joker strikes again! Bombs planted in the harbor, and the loss of valuable shipments brings Commissioner Gordon to his knees! ___

__News of the infamous Joker has spread throughout the city exponentially ever since his first appearance years ago, when Zoe was far too young to remember it. Soon after, the Batman came into the light as the mythed guardian of Gotham, and it’s been a back-and-forth battle between the two since then. Madness versus mystery, a lunatic versus a vigilante - to some, both sides were equally responsible for the hardships that befell Gotham City upon the death of it’s two beacons of hope, Thomas and Martha Wayne._ _

__The Winchester family, once a high-standing business company that often made partnerships with the Waynes, came it’s falling in a similar fashion. Zoe had only read about it from news headlines, but when she tried to remember back to her past life, before the orphanage and before her new family came crumbling down a second time… It hurt too much to bare. And all that she could salvage from her fragmented memories was a vision of an owl, its yellow eyes boring into her with a predatory instinct. To kill._ _

__All that she had of them now was one measly photograph. A family portrait, which she kept safely framed in a lockbox that she had gotten from a visit to the circus when she was young. She used that box for the few valuables she had - the photograph, an old silver key, a letter from her mother, and...the feather of a snowy owl that she had found outside her bedroom window when she was a child._ _

__All of those were safely stored away underneath the mattress in her bed, and so she had no worries of it going missing once she returned home from the Academy. Most of the kids there were in dorms, but it was no question that she wasn’t one of them - her father clearly wasn’t capable of taking care of himself, and no matter how much she loathed the man, he was still her father. Blood-related or otherwise._ _

__The bus ride to the school was hectic, and Zoe ended up shrinking in her seat in the middle of the yellow vehicle. For a bunch of kids who all either came from incredibly wealthy families or were smart enough to get a scholarship to the school, they were surprisingly immature, yelling and messing around and throwing paper balls around. Zoe could handle street thugs, she could crack a combination lock in seconds, and she could even handle some of Penguin’s guys, but this was an entirely different story. Enduring a bunch of idiotic kids first thing in the morning was definitely _not _her idea of a good time._ _ __

__

__Upon reaching the Academy’s gates, everything seemed to go by in a steady, uniform rhythm. Go to her locker and get her books, go to class, sit through an hour of algebra, and head to her next class at the end of it all. Her grades were above average without her even having to try, but her mind was still distant from the current philosophy spiel that her history teacher was going on about for ten minutes now. Gazing out the windows, at the trees, at the grey clouds covering the sky, or even at the courtyard below, the girl found almost _anything _to distract her from this mind-numbing state she was in._ _ __

____

__Lunch came and passed, as did her extracurricular courses - engineering and computer lab. Even her elective classes were taken with the Bat in mind, since, how else could she learn how to make the cool gadgets he has? And she was _sure _the Bat knew how to hack into computers, since he seemed to know what went on in the city each and every day. The Dark Knight, as some called him, was probably one of the smartest men that Zoe had ever researched so thoroughly. Yes, making background checks on people was a long-time hobby of hers, as she had been infinitely fascinated by how much could be found of a person with little more than just a simple internet search of their name._ _ __

_____ _

__But _Batman _, oh-ho, she hadn’t ever _seen _someone as deeply layered in their actions as he was. Whenever she thought too deeply on it, her mind felt as if it would burst from all of the questions that she was dying to ask the illusive man. How did he know where to be at what time? Has Robin grown shorter over the span of the years, or could there be multiple Robins? And… Did he ever lose someone close to him?_ _ ____

______ _ _

__… … …_ _

______ _ _

__Zoe just let out a long, drawn-out sigh as she collapsed onto one of the two couches in the living room. Her father was up and moving again, and he had left a large depression on the old and torn-apart brown couch that he spent most of his time on. A few wine bottles were scattered about on the ground, all of them empty, and the air reeked of the strong scent of alcohol. It was a scent that Zoe had long since grown accustomed to, living with a man like that of which drank day in and day out in a despondent process of drowning his sorrows._ _

______ _ _

__She almost felt bad for the man._ _

______ _ _

___Almost. ___ __

_______ _ _ _

__All of those feelings of pity were quickly forgotten as she recalled the events that had lead her and her father into such a compromising financial position. Before everything came crumbling down like a suspension bridge with cut wires, her adoptive father had worked for a powerful mob boss, Sal Maroni. He was one of the top street thugs that the man had under his control, until Maroni found that her father had been embezzling money and hiding it underneath the floorboards of their old home._ _

_______ _ _ _

__It was that very next night, and Zoe could remember it all vividly, despite her trying hard to forget about the event each day. She had hid in the closet that day, the bang of gunfire piercing her ears and making her head ring. She heard the screams, and she could hear her father’s desperate attempts to spare his wife and his two _biological _children from the crime boss, but… All of it had proved futile._ _ __

________ _ _ _ _

__The funeral was held on April 15th, for her mother, her brother, and her sister. In only one night, her second family had been taken away just as her first had. She was relatively alone now, just her and her father, as she had watched his quick downwards spiral into drunkenness and anger at whatever could set him off the tiniest bit. Such a fate was only pitiful, as his anger and frustration would constantly be taken out on his adopted daughter._ _

________ _ _ _ _

__But she couldn’t get too mad at him. He was, after all, her father. It was hard not to have at least some feelings for the man who used to be so amazing. Even so, now he was little more than a liar and a cheat, and Zoe secretly hoped that she wouldn’t have to deal with him much longer. Cleaning up after him was enough, but to deal with his temper and his apathy towards anything and everything he was faced with? It didn’t matter who attacked Gotham - The Joker, Scarecrow, the Riddler, all of them earned no reaction from her father. No fear, no worry, no concern - it was as if he had already given up, and Zoe _hated _how cowardly that was._ _ __

_________ _ _ _ _ _

__Pushing those thoughts away, the thin girl just rose to her feet and immediately went to shut herself in her room. Her backpack, fully white and covered in doodles with different colored sharpies, was laying open on her desk for if she decided to do the homework assigned to her from the Academy. Her bed was fairly large and pushed against the corner, with black sheets, a black pillow, and a black comforter - although it was riddled with stuffed animals, from her giant teddy bear to her favorite, soft and small grey rabbit. Even though she tried to be serious most of the time, for whatever reason, she still allowed herself to indulge in her childish side every now and then - with stuffed animals on her bed, a display case full of figurines and completed Lego sets, and a shelf filled with comic books and graphic novels - along with a ton of Sherlock Holmes books._ _

_________ _ _ _ _ _

__And, hung up in the back of her closet, was a corkboard beset with torn-out articles and photographs, along with a fair amount of sticky notes all connected to a single sticky note in the center of the board in an organized manner. Speculations and conjectures, all connected, with not the tiniest detail left out of the web… It was Zoe’s own little passion, her own mystery to solve, her own little _Professor Moriarty _. Zoe chuckled ruefully at the thought._ _ __

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

__She had been in her room for longer than she kept track of, and after a while, she began to hear shuffling around the house as her father began to stir from his slumber. Hopefully, if luck was on Zoe’s side, he would stay sober for the night. But she had never relied on her apparent lack of fortune. Instead, she just slipped on her usual hooded leather jacket, along with a pair of goggles that were fastened on her head. It was surely dark enough now - Gotham usually got dark at around six or seven, and now that it was eight, the streetlights had already come on and the world was enveloped in shadows._ _

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

__Unhitching the lock on her window and sliding it open, she stayed silent as she let a rope hang from the windowsill just as she had the night before. It wasn’t uncommon to find that she would be out every night, just to get away from the confines that weighed her down in her own home. Out here, jumping from her window across a short gap, and landing on the rooftop of a neighboring building below, she truly did feel relaxed. But the thought of her feeling relaxed in the infamous Gotham city scared her a bit, so she just placed her tinted goggles over her eyes and continued along an unplanned trail along the rooftops._ _

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

__If there was ever a time for something interesting to happen in her rather secretive and deeply-secluded life, she prayed that the time would come soon._ _

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _


	3. Rhapsody in Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoe stumbles upon a songbird during a nightly stroll.

The moon was little more than a sliver in the sky, casting a silver glow over the large, flat surface of the rooftop where she had made her temporary stay and resting point. Having come from the West Side, she had recently crossed over into Columbia point, and was now resting at the edge of the Midtown section of Gotham, watching cars and vehicles cross through one of the two bridges that connected Midtown and the North End. Watching from so high up made her almost feel a bit frightened, but at the same time… _Wow _.__

__Everything just looked so beautiful the higher you went. The glittering of the building lights, the light of the moon and the minimal stars showing bouncing across the skyline and lining it in silver… Zoe had always enjoyed looking over the city in silence like this, away from the crummy dirtiness of reality that harbored in the streets and the alleys. From a distance, you could only see what was beautiful about something, and you only began to see the faults when you moved closer._ _

__That was what brought Zoe to this spot, in particular._ _

__The water, too, sparkled from the pale silver light that the moon cast down, and reflected from the lights of buildings and streets bouncing off of it’s rippled surface. All of it was so picture-perfect, so scenic, that a part of her wished that she brought her camera up here with her. Of course, bringing the polaroid camera that she loved so much with her while she was jumping rooftops and climbing buildings and fighting off small-time idiots with guns and knives was a _horrible _idea. Still though, Zoe always had felt a sort of passion for photography. She had found that from a very young age, she had always been looking at the world from a camera lens. She had binders and binders of photographs that she had taken over every year of her hectic and unprecedented life, and she truly wouldn’t have it any other way.___ _

____She loved her camera, just like she loved music, or just like she loved cats or flowers. It was just one of the many things about her that she enjoyed liking, one of the few things about herself that she was content with, and one of the only things that would always bring her peace. But right now, she just wanted to see it with her own eyes._ _ _ _

____So, sitting cross-legged on the flat edge of the rooftop, she raised her hands, and with her index fingers and thumbs, made a square for the perfect picture frame. And she had made a mental image of that memory - of that moment - the breathlessness that had come to her underneath the pale light of a waning crescent moon, for it to surely be transcribed onto pencil and paper later. But as she rose to her feet to continue moving, she felt a presence meters behind her that told that she was suddenly no longer alone._ _ _ _

____And there was a voice, too. Male. Only a bit older than her?_ _ _ _

____Softly, kindly, a bit awkwardly, it had spoken._ _ _ _

____“Nice view, huh?”_ _ _ _

____Zoe turned around, to see white eyes from a domino mask watching her. She couldn’t help but feel slightly wary, even though she knew she shouldn’t - because she _knew _who this was. Really, who wouldn’t? He was one of Batman’s comrades. A fellow Gotham Knight, a guardian of the city. Zoe swallowed. _Red Robin _. At the moment, she didn’t quite know what to say. Oh, how she has been _waiting _for this moment! But… All she could do in that second was give a wavering, stammering response._______ _ _ _

__________“Um… Yeah. Uh, yeah. It is.” She tore her gaze away from him, and looked back out over the glittering diamonds of streetlights and buildings and skylines lining the near distance. When she took a deep breath, she tasted smog and pollution, but she also tasted the cool air of mid-autumn. Not as warm as summer but not quite at the wintry point of wearing a scarf and earmuffs. She was more relaxed looking at the city skyline scenery than at him, it seemed. Although, that much was obvious for her._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________“I have to ask…” He walked up to stand beside her, making it apparent that their height was probably somewhere near the same, and yet he was still bigger than her. Broader shoulders, muscles defined in that awkwardly skintight suit, and even the way he had presented himself had given away his maturity. She felt him look at her, and her breath hitched. “What would a lady like you be doing so high up?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

___________Oh _. That was… Not the question she was hoping that he would ask, although she knew from the moment she saw him that it was what he would end up questioning. But really, what was she supposed to say to that? That she goes out every night and climbs buildings to relieve the stress of her day-to-day life? The boy would probably think she was _insane _if she said that. Although, while she was having her internal debate on what her answer should be, Red Robin asked a question to overlook the last - much to Zoe’s relief.____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

______________“What’s your name?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

______________“Zoe.” She had responded, in a quiet voice that highly contradicted to the general frantic nature of her current train of thought. For now, she would at least keep her last name a secret. She could do that much, surely, because her last name would give away too much. Thankfully, Red Robin didn’t press on, and continued speaking after he was sure she was finished._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

______________“It’s pretty dangerous up here. Isn’t it a bit late for you to be out and about?” His voice echoed concern, and Zoe’s shoulders sagged. A tiny part of her hoped she hadn’t made him worry, although she also knew that anyone in their right mind would worry if they knew what she had been doing for so long. For some reason though - perhaps it was the tone of his voice, or the slight downcurve of his lips, or how he had been considerate of her for the past few moments since their encounter - Zoe felt a bit bad now, for putting herself in danger. Still, though, she continued to remain obstinate, and didn’t want to back down just yet._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

______________“I could say the same for you.” Zoe gave him a fleeting glance, not wanting to be caught staring even though a part of her wanted to stare, before she placed her hands in her leather jackets pockets and looked back out at the scene. She seemed to focus on the sky now, watching the grey clouds and the silver glow of the moon intently. “You can’t be that much older than me. Don’t you have school?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

______________Red Robin seemed to be slightly flustered - _flustered _\- at Zoe’s deduction. Was he impressed? Zoe tried not to smile at the thought, but let her mind indulge in the internal glee that she would feel if she managed to _impress _such a genius as Red Robin. The boy just let out a slightly startled voice after that. “I- Uh… I, can’t, answer that.”_____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________________“Figured.” Zoe’s response came immediately after, and she let out a soft sigh with an undertone of disappointment, before resuming to sit down on the edge with her legs dangling off the side. If she fell right now, it would surely be over. She knew that, but some part of her didn’t feel so afraid anymore, although she knew that if she tried to follow that thought through to it’s end, there would be no turning back. So she just accepted that, for now, she wasn’t really all that afraid of heights and moved on._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________________Red Robin’s next question surprised her slightly._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________________“Are you...alright?”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________________Oh. _Oh _. Zoe swallowed and her eyebrows furrowed slightly at that, his query bringing a new wave of thoughts rushing into her. Did he think she was up here, alone, on a beautiful moonlit night for a _reason _? Well- She supposed she was up here for a reason, but was he thinking that her reason was for one of a more...darker origin?_____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

______________________Did he think that she was going to jump?_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

______________________Shaking those dreary thoughts away, Zoe just cleared her throat awkwardly and scooted away from the edge in her own sudden edging anxiety, now sitting cross-legged at a fair and relatively safer distance. “Um, _yeah _. Yeah, I’m- I’m fine. Why, uhh, why do you ask?”___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________________________Zoe cleared her throat again after that. She had dreamed of meeting a member of the Bat-clan for who-knows how long, and she’s played it all out in her head countless times, but suddenly all of that seemed to be useless now. The moment that she saw him, the moment that he spoke, and now that he sat beside her on a building that she was minorly unsure of how to get down from… It was like she had suddenly been stripped bare, an open book for him to read easily from her own awkwardness and her anxieties and she _hated _it. Geez, why couldn’t she be at least a _bit _more cool in front of her hero? This was just humiliating._____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________________________“Well, ah, I’ve seen you around a few times.” Red Robin’s words made Zoe’s heart stop for a split second, and her fists quickly clenched, nails scraping against concrete before digging tensely into her palms. He didn’t seem to notice her jump, or if he did, he didn’t give any tell of it. He scratched the back of his neck. “You go out like this often, don’t you? To be honest, I’m pretty sure everyone’s noticed you wandering around at night by now.”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________________________“Everyone?” Zoe placed her hands in her laps, letting her fingers scratch at the fabric of her black jeans and at the silver buckles of her black ankle-high combat boots that she wore when she was out here. She looked down to try and hide a tiny grin. _He means that… Batman has noticed it, too? _Although she tried to wipe away her excitement at that to put on a faulty act of aloofness. “Um… I’m just curious, but, what else do you notice about me?”___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

______________________________Red Robin thought for a moment, giving time for Zoe to realize that the duration of this little encounter has far outstretched one of a hero checking in on a citizen and bringing her down to safety. They were actually having a conversation. “Well, you know how to fight, even though you can’t be older than fifteen… You’re out here almost every night, even when it’s raining, and you know your way around the alleyways, although you prefer to stay above ground level. And, uh…” He paused, hesitated, before stating his last little tidbit of information. “You smell strongly of alcohol, although I get the feeling that you don’t drink…”_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

______________________________Zoe’s eyes widened slightly, genuinely impressed with his deductions, but she had to refrain from giving away too many answers too soon. Was he an insanely good detective, or her new stalker? _One may never know _, she mused, before leaning back with her hands on the ground behind her to prop her up, as the girl looked up at the sky again with a content expression. Her black curls, although messy and unkempt, shone slightly under the bright and cool lighting around them, and it framed her face nicely. Red Robin couldn’t quite read that particular look in her eyes.___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________________________________The two talked for a little while after that, sometimes making jokes and sometimes just talking about the city, before Red Robin seemed to notice how long he’s been lingering, and after that he made quick haste of wrapping things up. Zoe could have predicted that he wouldn’t let her get down from her perch on her own, but for him to insist that he accompanied her _all the way _across the city to her home? He offered that she hitch a ride with him through grapple hook, but she politely and hastily declined, because _that _would be too much._____ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

____________________________________As she waved sheepishly from her bedroom window and watched him leap off into the night, a part of her felt nervous, because now he _definitely _knew where she lived, but another part of her was…___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

______________________________________Content._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

______________________________________For once, she wasn’t overflowing with questions. She could have interrogated him that night. She could have tried to pry the information out of him, asking where he lived, what his real name was, or even what _Batman’s _true identity was, but…___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

________________________________________For this one moment, she didn’t really care if she knew his name or not. Because a part of her felt that she still _knew _him. Red Robin, the boy who had saved the city. Red Robin, the boy who had fought off countless villains over and over again. And, Red Robin, the boy who had sat with her comfortably until the moon began it’s slow and timely descent towards the opposite horizon.___ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__________________________________________Maybe she didn’t need to know right now. A part of her did know, though, that this wouldn’t be her only meeting with that crimson little songbird._ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


End file.
